Italy, immigrant jobs to fall 27% in 2012

Unemployment caused by Italy's crisis is also affecting immigrants with 22.420 less new jobs (-27 percent) estimated this year for non-seasonal foreign workers in the industrial and service sectors, according to the annual survey of the Unioncamere association and the Labour Ministry. The decrease in new hires will mostly concern small companies (-88.5 percent) and regions in northern Italy (-69 percent). The estimate on hire cuts for immigrants was based on the 60.570 jobs offered to immigrants this year against the 82.990 offered last year (-27 percent). The negative employment rate mostly concerns companies with less than 50 employees which are expected to hire 30.190 immigrants, 19.840 less than last year (totalling 88.5 percent of the overall decrease forecast this year); and northern regions which are expected to hire 36.060 immigrants compared to last year's 51.550 (15.490 less than last year, 69%). Overall, companies are expecting to hire a maximum of 113,000 foreign workers - 60.570 for non-seasonal employment and 52.160 for seasonal jobs - compared to the 138.200 forecast last year. However the study also observed that the trend to mostly hire foreigners for certain types of jobs will contribute for the increase this year of the overall percentage of immigrant workers among new hires - from 16.3 percent last year to 17.9 percent. If demand for immigrant work will fall 18 percent this year, new Italian hires are estimated to decrease by 31.6 percent (188.340 less jobs)